The College of Arts + Architecture was established in response to the rapid changes in the education of creative leaders. Founded on the collaborative capabilities of the arts and design disciplines, the College defines our work as a critical form of inquiry and problem solving as much as a skill-driven product.
The College’s mission is based on three primary components: Curriculum, Faculty, and Community. The curriculum is not static or permanent as we are constantly engaging in new approaches and methods of cultural production and arts practice while continuing to teach the core skills of sight, sound, touch, and representation. Our accomplished faculty are equally committed to teaching excellence and professional development in their field of expertise. We connect to the community through the act of discovering new potential in the places we live, work, and visit. Architecture and the arts frame creative potential through diverse forms of expression, social space, shelter, language and communication.
Our work represents the University of North Carolina at Charlotte’s commitment to the arts and culture on campus and in the larger community. The campus is a living laboratory where students engage in research, community, and social and aesthetic issues through studio and performance-based experiences as well as theoretical and historical models of critical thinking. The campus is where we push beyond what anyone might expect.
Action is at the heart of any arts practice. The arts and architecture disciplines are the engine for creative education, creative programming, creative leadership development, and creative community engagement by the University. The College promotes a dynamic arts program in which a diverse group of students are encouraged as artists and designers to become self-reflective, intellectually curious and politically engaged.
Today’s students are incredibly skilled, passionate, curious, and realistic, but they confront global challenges we’re just beginning to understand. The College is committed to preparing students for a lifetime of sustained art-making. Though the forms of art-making and design practice will change over time and according to new contexts, the core belief in the power of the arts to enhance people’s lives forms the bedrock of the CoA+A.
Five themes bring measure to these efforts, draw experts from around the world to the CoA+A, define our faculty and students, and cut across all disciplines within the College:
Arts Education and research in how arts education inspires, innovates, and stimulates learning;
Sustainability as a cultural imperative through integrative design solutions and socially responsible community engagement;
Performance not only as it pertains to dance, theater, and music, but to the College’s vision of full collaboration across and cooperation between all disciplines;
Global Education & Practices as both the stimulus and context for most artistic and architectural work today;
Communications Design as the conjoining of traditional medias of graphic design, illustration, and modeling with new practices of digital media, film, video, and performance to extend our potential to tell stories and record human experience.
Take a closer look at our Schools and Departments or contact us directly to find out how you can be a part of what we’re doing at the College of Arts + Architecture.
